Blue Container Project

In September and October of 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the construction of the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ and ‘21st-century Maritime Silk Road’, collectively termed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and popularly known as the New Silk Road.

In September and October of 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the
construction of the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ and ‘21st-century Maritime Silk
Road’, collectively termed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and popularly
known as the New Silk Road. President Xi stressed that the countries involved in
this development strategy should build a win-win ‘community of interests’ and a
‘community of common destiny’ with joint development and prosperity as the
shared goal.

The purpose of the BRI Silk Road Economic Belt is to develop economy and
promote trade. Throughout human history, nearly all major economic change and
activity has been accompanied by dissemination and communication of culture and
the humanities. Only on a basis of mutual cultural acceptance, understanding and
respect can economic development achieve interconnectedness and sustainability;
likewise, economic prosperity can greatly promote cultural achievements and
integration. Cultural dissemination and cultural exchange are necessary to
achieve economic goals, and also offer the countries along the New Silk Road an
opportunity to gain deeper understanding and appreciation of each other.

The BRI is not an entity or mechanism, but a wide-reaching concept and
strategy for cooperative development. It will make use of existing bilateral and
multilateral mechanisms, and build on established, effective regional
cooperation platforms. The BRI will proactively develop economic partnerships in
the New Silk Road regions, and help the nations involved to build communities of
shared interest, shared destiny and shared responsibility, based on strong
foundations of political mutual trust, economic integration and cultural
inclusivity. At the core of the BRI are the ‘Five Connectivities’: policy
coordination, infrastructure connectivity, free trade, currency circulation, and
people-to-people exchange. These are the logical necessities of a comprehensive
opening-up to the outside world, and the inevitable trend of global
development.